State has new designs on the world

Telling a story: John Brumby launches the new logo.Photo: Andrew de la Rue

By Mathew Murphy and Christian CatalanoMarch 10, 2006

IT COST $750,000 and was 18 months in the making. Victoria's new
"single-brand" logo, designed to lure overseas investors, consists
of the word "Victoria", its letters fanning out like pages from a
book.

The logo will, on occasion, be accompanied by a "brand DNA",
which says "You can come alive in Victoria". A second logo has also
been designed in the same style. It says "Melbourne".

Launching the "Brand Victoria" campaign yesterday, State and
Regional Development Minister John Brumby sought to explain the
design's meaning.

"The beauty of this is that it will enable us to tell
what is a great story about our state and that's what it really is
all about  it is about telling a story," he said.

Of the "Brand DNA", he said: "That is a slogan that has tested
very, very well, particularly with younger people."

The logo is aimed at the key overseas sectors of tourism,
investment, education and skilled migration. It was not, he said,
designed to overtake the state's tourism campaign ("You'll love
every piece of Victoria") or the slogan "Victoria: The Place to
Be".

Reaction to the logo was decidedly mixed. "It's clear bold and
strong," said media buyer Harold Mitchell. "A good logo needs all
of those elements".

Designer Vince Frost, of Frost Design in Sydney, disagreed. "I
just think this looks incredibly weak," he said. "For me it's
really lacking in an idea. It doesn't feel modern or fresh and
that's the kind of city Melbourne is.

"It's a lost opportunity to do a timeless piece of design. I
find it also odd that both logos are the same for Melbourne and
Victoria."

The chief executive of the Victorian Employers Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, Neil Coulson, described the final result as
a "promising start". "I think it'll grow on me," he said.

But the State Opposition predicted the brand would be a
flop.

The Opposition's scrutiny of government spokesman Phil Honeywood
said: "This has been a wasteful extravagance of time and money to
come up with a brand that will have no net benefit or identity
spin-off."

The design's creator, Ken Cato, said Victorians needed to
understand that it was not "just a logotype or a new badge".

"It's about trying to capture the spirit of Victoria, the spirit
of Melbourne and put that into a promotable form," he said.

From market research, Mr Cato said visitors to Melbourne often
discovered there were more dimensions to the city than they had
anticipated.

"So we're kind of saying it's a bit like an onion  each
time you peel back a layer there's a better bit underneath."

Mr Cato, the founder and chairman of corporate design company
Cato Purnell Partners, said: "I've run my practice for nearly 36
years and I don't think there's ever been a more difficult
project.

"We had something like 138 different stakeholders we needed to
run this by."

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